Firebird
by Mrazataz
Summary: When Chekov finds a Russian soul in need on the streets of Leningrad this mysterious girl brings a secret which will change Captain Kirk's life forever. Could this girl be the one that Chekov has been looking for all these years? My first fan fic. R & R.
1. Light Years Before Us

Firebird

Note To Reader: Any thing spoken in Russian will be italicized while all English dialogue will be in normal type. Special thanks to Star Trek: The Original Series, Season Two, Episode Forty One, "The Deadly Years." Also, the title, "Firebird," is taken from a Russian folklore which tells the story of a golden bird, who's beauty is beyond compare and to whoever harms or imprisons the sacred bird comes a price.

Chapter One

_"Can you spare any change sir? Any change ma'am? Thank you."_ Vanya Sarah Davidovna's torn and tattered feet leapt across the street of Leningrad through the throng of people towards the food market across the street. As she flew down the street, one of her bare feet slipped into a street grate and as she began to run ahead, a sickening snap came from her foot. She fell to the ground as shots of nauseating pain engulfed the entirety of her right let. She could stand the pain only long enough to drag her body to the nearest alley.

* * *

Ensign Pavel Andrieivich Chekov thanked the captain profusely for granting him two duty free days of shore leave. He had visited his dear mother on the outskirts of the city and now ventured to reacquaint himself with beautiful Leningrad-so dear to his heart. He had not anticipated to miss his mother tongue so dearly. It was a curious thing to nearly forget that which had been all he knew. When he walked down the streets of this land-who had reared the Chekov line as far back as man could possibly say-it was nearly enough to make him regret ever leaving her. This thought made him tremble in shame at ever beginning to think such a thing. For all he loved Russia the stars were where he belonged.

The freezing winds of the seemingly endless Russian winter danced through his hair. A sad small noise drifted upon that wind. As Chekov listened the crying noise emanated from a near by alleyway between the food market and the computer repair store. As he peered down the alley he saw the shaking form of a child, sitting with her knees clutched to her chest; the fingers that clutched them were as blue as the waters of Rigel X.

"_Are you alright?_" The girl backed away, frightened, but before she had gotten very far she stopped, clutching her foot and letting out a low pitiful moan. Chekov saw her foot for the first time. Bluer even than her fingers and badly broken, the bone stretching the skin sickeningly.

"_It's okay, let me help you. Look, look,_" He stripped his jacket, revealing his Starfleet uniform _below. "I am of Starfleet. Do you know what that means?_" The speechless girl nodded slowly.

"_Please, let me take you to a medic." _She shook her head vigorously.

"_Why? They can fix you foot and give you something warm to drink. Please, let me take you there." _This time the girl nodded hesitantly. The emaciated girl tried to clamber to her feet, but fell and cried out in pain.

"_May I carry you?"_

"_Yes, thank you for you kindness." _The Russian she spoke was strange and beautiful. It was somewhat similar to the Russian Mr. Spock spoke, yet, more gentle, graceful, more...beautiful.

He carefully lifted the girl into his arms. She was surprisingly light and shook badly.

"_You're not part Vulcan by any chance?"_

"_No, my mother was Russian and my father of America."_

"_Your Russian is strange to me."_

"_I learned Russian from my mother speaking the language while all around were speaking English. I was the first and only child to be born and raised aboard a starship." _Why did she wish to tell this young ensign all she had tried so hard for so long to bury?

"_My mother died when I was seven and after that I simply couldn't stay aboard with so many memories. So, I chose to come here." _The tears began flowing and would not stop.

"_Sh, sh, there now."_

The rest of the walk was silent. The girl fell asleep in his arms before they reached the nearest transport station. She dreampt, for the first time in seven years, of her brief childhood, the Conquest, and light years of stars before her.


	2. Waking

Chapter Two

The strange girl Ensign Chekov had brought back from his shore leave lay one of the beds in sick bay. The Ensign and the Doctor had had a terrific row when he had appeared with the emaciated, foot-broken, beaten girl. She looked like trouble to Doctor Leonard "Bones" McCoy, but the moment the Ensign told him he had found her frozen on the street and he began to examine her, he knew that if he had not become a doctor to help those in need, why had he?

The girl was beaten from head to toe, and Bones was surprised she had survived this long, by the different shades of bruising he guessed the beating was not a single incident. The Doc had been so preoccupied with examining her he had failed to alert the Captain as to her presence right away.

"Sickbay to bridge."

"Bones?"

"Jim, could you come down here for a moment?"

Chekov had not left the girl's side. He had insisted that the girl would be alarmed if she awoke and he wasn't there and, besides, the Captain had granted him two days of shore leave and he had only taken one.

"Bones, what it is?" The Captain entered sickbay. With a start Captain James T. Kirk's eyes darted from the Doc, to the girl lying in his sickbay, to the Ensign and back again.

"Ensign Chekov encountered this little Russian soul in need and felt compelled to make her my problem." The Captain stepped closer. The girl looked exactly like another Russian he had once known. Could this girl be some relation?

"Explain, Mr. Chekov."

"I was in Leningrad when I heard a cry and found the girl frozen, and starving and I couldn't leave her, Captain. If I've committed any offence then I will suffer the consequences, but please sir let the girl stay aboard. I'm certain that once she's on her feet she can be of help."

"What makes you so sure, Mr. Chekov?"

"She tells me the first seven years of her life were spent aboard the U.S.S Conquest."

"If what you say is true, Mr. Chekov, the Doctor will suffer her company as he would that of you or I, isn't that so Bones?"

"I suppose so, Jim." The Doctor avoided looking into the Captain's eyes, but instead more closely examined the girl's vitals.

"So Bones, can we talk to her?"

"Now that I've finished my exam, I suppose so. Nurse Chapel, may I have a shot of adrenaline, please?"

As the Doctor injected her, the girl began to awaken. After a few low moans the girl's eyes shot open. Kirk, after looking into her eyes, realized with a chill that this Russian girl's eyes were like looking into a mirror of his own. Her eyes quickly assessed all of the people in the room, relaxing considerably as she saw Chekov had not left her side.

"_Where am I?"_

"_You are in the sick bay of the U.S.S Enterprise. This is our captain, James T. Kirk. He would like to ask you some questions. Can you speak English?" _The girl nodded to what Ensign Chekov spoke in Russian.

Vanya couldn't believe that the handsome man before her was James T. Kirk, the man she had dreampt of all her life, Captain of the Enterprise. Just as she thought that she could be no more pleased than this moment he spoke to her with such kindness, "Hello, Little One. What's your name?" It took every little ounce of energy Vanya had to respond to that simple question.

"V-Vanya...Davidovna."

"A good Russian name, is it not, Mr. Chekov?" Now Captain Kirk was certain that this girl must be some relative to the Anusha Davidovna he had once known, who she so closely resembled

"Yes, sir."

"So, Vanya Davidovna, tell me how old are you?"

"I'll be sixteen in a month's time."

"Very good. Ensign Chekov tells me you spent the first seven years of your life aboard the Conquest, is that so?"

"Yes sir, I can certainly be of help aboard. I'm skilled in Engineering and other areas, also."

"I was an officer aboard the Conquest about an Earth year before you were born. Though, our Chief Engineer, Mr. Scott left the Conquest about five years ago. Do you remember him?"

"I most certainly do! I spent many an hour in Engineering with Mr. Scott while on the Conquest. He often spoke of the Enterprise and her superior design."

"Is that so? Well, then we'll have to get him to sickbay soon. Doctor, may I see you outside for a moment? Mr. Chekov please keep our guest entertained while the Doctor have a word."

* * *

"_Mr. Chekov, I don't believe we were fully introduced, Vanya Sarah Davidovna."_

"_Ensign Pavel Andrieivich Chekov, Navigator of the U.S.S Enterprise, pleased to make your acquaintance." _Pavel Andrieivich, she had always loved the name Pavel. She had had a great great uncle by the name of Pavel, but he, too, had died in the service of the Federation. She told this to the Pavel before her.

"_Would that be the first of the great Russian captains, Pavel Vanya Ivanovich?"_

"_Yes, my mother named me after him."_

"_I, too, was named after Pavel Vanya Ivanovich. Vanya is a very beautiful name."_

"_Thank you. Pavel is also a very beautiful name."_

Kirk and Doctor McCoy entered the room. "So, Ms. Davidovna, I hope you will excuse me. Also, would it be quite alright if Mr. Chekov accompanied me?" Vanya would rather the handsome young man stayed by her side.

"Yes, sir." It was not her place to deny a captain his navigator on a whim.

"Though, sir, may I be allowed to see Mr. Scott soon?"

"You'll have to address that question to Dr. McCoy, Ms. Davidovna. Mr. Chekov." Vanya was afraid to be alone with the Doctor. He was in no way a threatening figure, but from the moment she had awakened she had sensed his abruptness with her.

"Excuse me, Dr. McCoy, may I be allowed to visit, Mr. Scott?"

"I won't allow you to leave sickbay, just yet, but Mr. Scott can certainly visit."

"Thank you, Doctor."

"For now, I want you to sleep. If any one comes for you, I'll wake you."

* * *

Vanya let herself slip into a deep sleep. On most occasions Vanya craved sleep and the release she received from pain, loneliness, and hunger. Now, more comfortable than she could ever remember being, she wanted nothing more than to wake from the horrible dreams which plagued her: the cold streets beneath her feet again. Her belly rumbled louder and louder and louder until a beast ripped through. The great and terrible beast tore at her skin, broke her body.

The dream ended and another horrible one began. She was locked in a cage, people jeered, spit, and threw stones. Her mother's lifeless body lay outside the cage with an equal crowd of abusers.

With a jolt her mother sat up, with blood shot, glazed, dead eyes and screeched, "Kirk!" Vanya turned to see where her mother was staring. There behind her lay the Captain's body. Vanya let out a blood curdling cry as never heard before, and awoke.


	3. To Touch the Face of God

Chapter Three

"Uh..." A splitting head ache reverberated around her skull.

"Doctor! She's awake!" She nearly screamed. Her skull seemed to fragment and her brain caught fire as Chekov's cry echoed through her ears.

"Ms. Davidovna, open your eyes." Vanya lay, digesting the noise droning on from somewhere far above, through a wall, through an ocean, through a vast universe.

"Open your eyes." She attempted to oblige, but found the minuscule glimpse, quite enough for quite awhile.

"Vanya, you're going to have to open your eyes, come on now. Mr. Chekov, dim the lights, please. Come on, now." Vanya reluctantly slowly opened her eyes. Colors blurred, but assuredly, three faces emerged before her, one at a time: Chekov, worried but reassuring, Dr. McCoy concern, and a third Vanya had never seen before, full of analytical curiosity.

"Vanya, can you tell me how many fingers I'm holding up?"

Vanya tried to omit an audible "three," but instead a low groan escaped her. Licking her lips, she tried once again, "Three."

"Good, I would like you to meet the ship's First Officer, and Chief Science Officer, Mr. Spock."

Vanya groaned an additional "How do you do?"

"Thank you for your concern, I am in good health." Vanya smiled at the purely Vulcan response. She had spent quite some time on Vulcan as a girl when the Conquest had been stationed in that sector for a year.

"Ms. Davidovna, it is evident that you suffered quite uncomfortable dreams, which happen to be a side effect of the medicine used on your right pedal phalanges, which are now, too, in good health. I've come, on the Captain's orders, to escort you to the bridge."

* * *

"Vanya Sarah Davidovna, you are now, officially an Ensign aboard the U.S.S Enterprise." Applauds and calls of congratulation sounded from around the bridge and nothing but kind faces and song greeted her.

* * *

Two months slipped inconspicuously by. Vanya was given her first real birthday, and was reacquainted with the art of Starship Engineering, and the dihydrogen-oxide balancing of matter, antimatter reactors. Whereas she knew only now-antiquated navigation, Chekov taught her contemporary.

She waited each day, expectantly for her navigation lesson, and found herself growing more and more expectant of this hour long haven. Inside, she knew that her, a sixteen year old girl, and Chekov, a twenty-two year old man could never be together, but she could not help but need to be near him.

The first two months of her stay aboard the Enterprise were rather uneventful, in duty terms: no unexplained missing planets, no odd satellites, or distress calls from far off civilizations, these two months were only exciting in the eyes of Vanya, and Kirk, who began to see just how similar this girl truly was to Anusha, and, indeed, to himself.

Near the beginning of Vanya's third month aboard, the Enterprise was scheduled to make a routine resupply of the experimental colony on Gama Hydra IV...

* * *

"Would Captain Kirk, Officer Spock, Dr. McCoy, Lieutenant Galaway and Ensigns Chekov and Davidovna, please report to the transporter room."

"Spock brief us on the situation on Gama Hydra IV."

"An experimental colony of scientists, none over the age of thirty, no children, no distress signal. The planet is of mountainous, semi-vegetated terrain. A heavy atmosphere, and two suns, varying in age, but habitable. Planet Type M."

"Thank you, Mr. Spock. Beam us down, Mr. Scott." The six rematerialized on a barren, dry planet. "Davidovna, Chekov, you look up by the main station. The rest of you, fan out." Vanya and Chekov walked up to a large, dry, earthenware makeshift lab.

"_Chekov, I'll check inside, you look around out here."_ Vanya stepped inside, the building was freezing, and a thick layer of dust coated the instruments.

"_Chek-,"_ Vanya began to cry back that something was not right when she saw it, a gaunt, aged face carved and ripped with wrinkles staring at her...dead. She let out a terrified scream and ran from the building, in tears, throwing herself into Chekov's arms.

"_Vanya, Vanya, what is it? What's wrong?"_

"_Dead, they're dead!"_

"_Dead? That's impossible, there was no distress call! Vanya, sh now, sit here, I'll call the Captain. Sit right there." _Chekov pulled his communicator from his belt. "Chekov to Captain, Captain do you read me?"

"Yes, Mr. Chekov."

"Vanya found the scientists, they're dead."

"We'll be there immediately." Chekov sat next to Vanya and held her as she cried, she cried and could not stop crying. In a minute or two, the Captain, Bones, the Lieutenant, and Spock ran past them and into the laboratory.

The Doctor reemerged in another minute or two, "all dead of extreme old age, no unnatural causes."

"Bones, the oldest man here turned thirty years old on the surface of this planet. How do fifteen young promising scientists suddenly age fifty years over six months."

"I did find traces of a rare bacteria, they documented to be present in the animal life here, in their blood stream, but they documented the bacteria to add to the animals life span, not decrease it."

"Spock, review the documents, see what kind of experiments they were running, Dr. McCoy, you beam back to the ship, and test that bacteria."

Spock stepped in, "Captain, we could now, all be infected with this bacteria, and it would be very unwise to have the Doctor possibly infect the rest of the crew."

"Of course you're right Spock. Bones, can you do anything with what they've got in there?" He indicated the building behind him.

"I should say so." Bones went off to investigate the bacteria.

"Galaway, follow me, Chekov, Vanya, that way, we'll explore the surrounding areas. Stick together." Chekov and Vanya headed off into a green, wooded area, while the Captain and Galaway headed into a dry, rocky expanse.

All manner of beasts and animals slithered and quivered from behind them, above them, and below them. After Chekov and Vanya had been walking for about two miles Chekov stopped, _"Vanya, can we rest for a minute. I think I've something in my shoe."_

"_Certainly, may I see the tricorder? I'd like to examine some of this plant life." _An odd crab-like species moved slowly across the forest floor.

"_Chekov, this crab is autotrophic!"_

"_What? Are you sure?"_

"_Quite sure. I've never seen anything like it!"_

"_I've once before. A rare occurrence, I was once lucky enough to observe at Star Fleet academy, a constantly autotrophic, asexual lizard, recovered on the first Neptune landing in 2098 by the Russian ship, the Promise."_

"_Chekov, we've gotten it."_

"_Gotten what?"_

"_The disease. Lines are appearing all over your face, and you're hair, it's graying, Chekov!"_

"_What? Vanya, I've just noticed, you've about three inches taller in the last mile or so."_

"_What're we to do?" _Tears began to roll down Vanya's face.

"_Head back, I suppose."_ Chekov put his arm around her. He couldn't help but think how beautiful a women she was. Vanya took a step and then, stopped wide-eyed with fear.

"_Chekov, don't move. That tree just to your right, has just wrapped a vine around your leg and, if I'm not mistaken has teeth." _The tree jerked Chekov's feet out from under him and dragged him closer to its now gaping maw, from which emanated the stench of a thousand rotting corpses and the very essence of Death himself.

"_Chekov!" _Vanya threw herself to the ground and help fast to her comrade's sliding body, but a girl is little match for a tree, let alone ones such as these.

From just behind Vanya came the shot of a phaser, and the vine around Chekov's ankle went slack.

"If I were you, Mr. Chekov, I would move exceedingly hastily in my direction." Mr. Spock, Vanya, and Chekov all ran the two miles back to the laboratory.

"Mr. Spock, how do I thank you?"

"No thanks are necessary, Mr. Chekov, I was merely doing what seemed fit in a moment of crisis."

Vanya knew both Chekov and Spock well enough to know that both quite liked one another but hated one another's pure humanity and vulcanity, retrospectively, thus knew enough to change the subject, "Mr. Spock how has the bacteria not begun to effect you. Are the others effected?"

"Both the Doctor and the Captain are equally effected. The Lieutenant was attacked by a large golden bird which, according to the Captain seemed to emanate a kind of light. The effect this attack seemed to have on Lieutenant Galaway was instantaneous aging rather than the accelerated pace you are now experiencing. Thus, the Doctor was able to utilize an element in both the bird's and my blood to make an antidote, now he merely has to adjust its strength to coincide with each of your ages."

Captain Kirk came out of the building returned to his previous young age, "Ms. Davidovna, would you like to receive the cure next, or shall Mr. Chekov."

"Well, Captain, I believe that I can wait longer than Mr. Chekov. Also, I would like a word with you in private. Chekov and I had a near death experience in the woods, and all I could think of was what if I died without telling you the truth?"

"What truth are you not telling your Captain?"

"Captain, when you were stationed on the Conquest, you knew a woman, Anusha Davidovna, my mother, and when you left she said that she thought that she would die, until she found out that-until-Captain, James Kirk, my true name is not Vanya Davidovna, but Vanya Kirk."

The Captain stood staring at the stars and for a moment Vanya thought that perhaps he had not heard or understood what she had said, that is until she saw that he was gently sobbing. His commanding form shook with gentle sobs.

"I don't know why I left her. Why didn't your mother tell me? I would have come back."

"She always said that she couldn't have lived knowing that it was she who took away your chance to be a captain, at last."

"I would have come back." Kirk placed his great arms around Vanya and they both cried. Kirk cried for all that he had missed because of all that didn't matter, Vanya cried for the love she could never have, and they both cried for Vanya's mother, and the father Vanya had never had.

After what seemed like a great long time, but could have only been a matter of minutes Chekov emerged from the darkness, "Vanya, Captain, the Doctor needs to see you both." When the three of them entered into the light of the now humming laboratory, Vanya could here the sounds of Doctor McCoy and Mr. Spock fighting a never ending battle, "Spock the risk is just too great!"

"What risk?" Vanya stepped in.

"The vaccine, it can't bring you back to sixteen."

"What?" Vanya, Chekov, and the Captain interrupted.

"Once your body has been brought through the stage of adolescence, to go back could prove fatal."

"So, what? Am I just going to die?"

"No, we'll just have to adjust the vaccine to regress your growth to a more viable age, say twenty?"

"Fine." The Doctor's needle slid gently through her skin, and as the precious medicine flowed through her, as water to the man dying of thirst, she could feel her body begin to move backward until, the sensation stopped and she rose.

When Chekov saw the women appear where the girl had been he could not have been more happy. The first thing she did was smile at him, and he was sure that he loved her, and she loved him and now they did not have to hide, at last.

* * *

Vanya sat thinking of all the years she had lost, the truth was she had been twenty for a long time before the events of the past week, in fact, she had been twenty since she was seven when she was thrust into a world completely different from all she had known: the world of flowing water, and setting suns, and the wind in your hair, and yet, she had always longed for the world she had always known: the world of the unknown, the world of endless space and endless wonders, and that was where she had found love and as long as she was not limited to the miracles of the one Earth and could always find something she knew nothing of, she cared not whether she was one hundred, one million, twenty or sixteen, it was not age, nor danger, nor even life that truly mattered, as long as she could believe there was something else out there, she could chase that something, and come as close as any to touching the face of God.


End file.
